Reply by JesseTutt

There should be no problem running a motor without a belt attached. I used to test electrical circuits in machinery destined to go into factories without the motor connected to anything and ran them for hours as I debugged PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers).

I was thinking of the receptacle as where you plug the saw into the outlet on the wall. 120V is a three prong plug, 220V (single phase) would be a 4 prong plug (hot, hot, neutral, and ground) – although my Grizzle bandsaw called for a 3 prong 220V plug (hot, hot, and neutral). I was wondering if there was a massive voltage drop (from the 120V it should measure) as the motor starts. As the voltage drops the motor tries to compensate by drawing more current.